Strangers- Complete FF - Pages 136 to 139 - Page 55

Originally posted by: ShubS

Are you updating another part tonight?

Originally posted by: y_tanuja

opti great update, looks like twists and turns time going on in michi life right now hope they both get out of this twist without hurting each other poor souls.

Originally posted by: Opti

Shubs, I have started it but it is pretty tedious as it is one of the most painful parts of the fic. I'll try and finish in the next 2 or 2 1/2 hours.

Originally posted by: AKANargis

Opti...Part nine was an exciting read...the birthing process well written...but who delivered the afterbirth..plcanta and all...??? or was it too gory to cover in the update??

Originally posted by: sailat@PA

YESS!! that'll be such a nice break from my 24/7 studying!! Thanx Opti!! i have a midterm tommorrow....comments for part ii coming tommorrow.....ummm, lets c u'll have a comment when ur up on Wednesday!! :DD

Part 11(iii)

When he brought Prachi home a year ago all he thought about was to give an identity to the unborn baby she was carrying. He did not know who she was or where she came from but for some incomprehensible reason he could not let her baby go nameless. He never figured out why he felt so strongly for her baby back then. He cannot say he was altogether altruistic. The situation that presented itself seemed to provide him an escape route from marriage in the real sense. He thought he can ward off all marriage proposals by keeping a fake wife by his side. Even after being forced into a real wedding, he thought their marriage did not mean anything more than a piece of paper - a paper that can be torn at will. He never bargained for the emotional exhilaration of falling in love with the woman he married and the baby she begot. Neither did he anticipate this emotional trauma of losing them both. His impulsive streak always got him into problems but he also managed to get out of them relatively unscathed. This time though he has been badly burnt. The full import of living life dangerously had hit home hard. The risk he took has knocked his breath away, leaving him an emotional wreck.

What upset him more? Was it the fact that she could not love him as much as he did or that their baby will be deprived of a name? While he realised both hurt him equally, the latter was unacceptable to him. She may leave him because she does not love him but he cannot sit back and let her raise her child fatherless. He cannot let all his efforts to keep the tag of illegitimacy from being tied to that sweet little angel go waste. The baby has to have a father. It was then that the significance of his meeting with Neev that afternoon hit him. Was this destiny's answer to this quagmire? It seemed so now. He suddenly started seeing things more clearly.

"Mr.Shergill. This is Milind," he identified himself.

"Milind? Milind, who?" asked back a confused Neev, still not fully out of his slumber.

"Milind Mishra. We met outside the ATM machine this afternoon and later had coffee together?" he tried jogging Neev's memory.

"Oh, Milind. Yes, I remember now. What is this late night call about?" he enquired in a puzzled tone.

"Neev... Can I call you Neev?"

"Yes, you may."

"Neev, what if I were to tell you that your Prachi is alive?" he asked hesitatingly.

"Prachi is alive?!!!" yelled out Neev in disbelief, by now fully awake.

"Yes, she is," Milind reaffirmed, his heart already sinking.

Over the next half hour he narrated all the events in his life since the fateful meeting with Prachi a year ago.

"I am sorry Neev. I should have told you all this when we met this afternoon but you were highly emotionally strung. I did not want to load you with all this lest you snap. Your girl friend may be my wife to the world but believe me I have not laid a finger on her. All I wanted to do was to provide her a house till she delivered her baby. She needs you now, don't forsake her. Destiny may have separated you but the very same destiny is giving you an opportunity to mend what it has broken."

Neev could not believe his luck. His Prachi was alive. Not only that, he also had a daughter. Suddenly his life did not seem as bleak as it did before.

"Tell me Milind. How does my daughter look?" he asked excitedly.

"As beautiful as an angel," said Milind with a large lump in his throat.

Neev took down Prachi's cell number and promised to call her the next morning.

As he disconnected the call, he realised the magnitude of what he had just done. There was no retrieval now. He has opened up the dam and should prepare himself to be drowned in the deluge. He turned to the counter and asked for another drink. Soon he gulped down glasses after glasses of hard liquor, losing count of how many pegs he had. However much he drank, the pain just wouldn't numb. He felt like being pierced by a thousand swords all at once and left to be bled to death.

"Prachi....Prachi...", he kept repeating.

"So you had a fight with Prachi? Welcome to the club of warring couples. However big your fight is, it still does not give you an excuse to contaminate your body with liquor," reprimanded a teetotaller Ali."Come, I'll drop you home after handing these medicines to Rehana. Can't risk you driving at this state."

After he left, Prachi removed Milinds shoes and loosened his shirt. She kept staring at his haggard sleeping face for a long time. She felt that her heart was being squeezed. After he had left she realised that what she said about Sahana's paternity must have killed him. She never once doubted his love for her daughter. But she knew that his life would be more complicated if he were to continue shouldering the responsibility of fathering her child. She did not know Ayesha at all but it would be difficult for any woman to accept this peculiar situation. She will not deny him the right to visit her daughter and spend as much time with her. But she will not burden him with her problems - she had no right to. The severance from his family will come at a very heavy price which all of them would have to pay, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Throughout the night Milind kept muttering in his sleep, repeatedly apologising to her for forcing her into this marriage. Prachi did not know how to comfort him. With tears streaming down her eyes, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go of him.

"Prachi, please...please don't hang up on me. Please meet me. I have a lot of things to tell you. Please Prachi, please don't say no," he begged her.

She did not know how to react to it. After a long pause she agreed to meet him. She took down the address of the hotel on a piece of paper lying on the side table and promised to meet him at 9.30 a.m.